Off we go again!

Yes, it's that time yet again - Liverpool here we come!

After months of Soli-problems, which are of course still ongoing, my Remy-problem is finally getting some attention.

Remy, as I think I mentioned in his little blog post, has mild bronchial disease.  Around 3 or 4 months ago, he was supposed to get a referral for a bronchoscopy, to identify the little nasties at work, and a large plate x-ray - the size of a dobermann chest (long and deep) means that regular vets' x-rays can't always capture everything they need to.

As soon as I requested a referral, the excuses began from my vets: 'we've been trying to call you on both phone to find out where you wanted to go', 'liverpool aren't sending us the forms', 'we can't do it till Remy's balance is cleared by the insurance' - then 'we can't do it until every penny of your balance is paid for all the dogs'.

Now, I've had no missed calls and no messages; I can understand them wanting to ask me where as normally, they would use Cambridge but they know Remy has seen the referral vet at Liverpool for his free heart scan (it was the lovely Jo who picked up on his lung issues);  a 5 minute phonecall got the forms faxed straight through, but it then took 3 days to get my vets to get off their arse (and speaking to a new vet who is actually helpful) to get them to fax them back; Remy's balance was cleared in full but in the following month they didn't sort the forms, so some built up again (hence the other balance issue); cleared that sharpish then the forms issue started up again. That was when the 5 minute phonecall happened, and half a dozen between the two vets to get mine doing something and keep liverpool informed.

All in all, what took my vets nearly 3 months to acheive nothing, I got sorted out in about 30 minutes on the phone.  Sigh.  A lot of it was helped by the new vet, she's fab! And southern like me - she talks so fast she runs out of breath!

Still, all sorted now. Remy's in at 9.30, and Soli's in at 11.30 to have a lump looked at.

The lump in question first appeared in summer 2008 - it's been steadily growing, but stable, since then.  A coulpe of weeks ago, it rather randomly 'fell off' - it has been in situ behind her left shoulder all the time but is now a full 6" below that, sitting on top of another smaller lump she's had most of her life.  I am going for surgery - I don't particularly want to, given her age, stress levels and heart condition, but it really is hurting her, it's starting to stay in the malformed shape it is now which is making it worse, it'll be a 10-minute surgery and if liverpool are doing it, I should be able to get an update on her DCM.

That's all copable-with.  It's just the 4am rise on Wednesday to walk the others that's going to kill me.